Thanksgiving Treats

A weekend home means oven access, which I intend to take full advantage of. In addition to churning out a few cheesecakes as per my parents' demand (not without mistakes, I forgot the eggs, but they turned out great anyway), I decided to try something new.

As you might have guessed, I'm not the most careful of cooks--eggs forgotten, 1 1/2 cups of lemon juice added instead of 1/2. Baking, a science which requires accuracy to ensure success, is not exactly my forte. So browsing my virtual library of recipes, I decided to try something that wasn't too easy to fuck up.

Meringues. The most challenging part of this recipe, to me, anyway, would be getting the egg whites to foam. I've tried twice before without success, and was beginning to think the ability to whisk egg whites into a perfect fluff was just something you were either born with or without. This time, I Googled "how to whisk egg whites into peaks" and came up with the following list of handy tips:

-make sure your bowl and beaters are completely clean, because oil will keep air bubbles from forming.
-make sure there is absolutely no egg yolk in your whites. Now we know where I went wrong last time.
-use a copper bowl, which will help air bubbles form. I have none, and am unwilling to go out and buy one, so a plain metal mixing bowl will have to do.
-use an electric mixer. Duly noted.
-use older eggs, which, due to chemical changes that take place in an egg overtime, will be more easily whipped into foam.
-add a pinch of salt to the whites at the beginning of beating to stiffen the proteins.

So...how did they turn out?

Meringues
From REC(ession)IPES

3 egg whites
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

~Heat oven to 225 degrees F.
~Beat egg whites and vanilla until the mixture begins to stiffen and form small peaks
~Slowly add sugar while continuing to beat until the sugar is more or less dissolved and the mixture is not grainy
~Place spoonfuls of batter on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 4-5 hours until they are hard, crunchy, and the centers are not chewy.





Bento Stream

Stir-fried noodles with mushrooms and carrots, romaine lettuce salad from a bag, italian dressing, hardboiled egg, mochi.

Rice with salmon furikake, cut kielbasa, hardboiled egg, mochi, three apple Kasugai gummies.

Egg omelet sandwich, veggie-grits croquette, persimmons. Not pictured: Teriyaki dipping sauce.

Scallion and kielbasa omelet, kielbasa on the side, mashed potatoes.

Plain rice, octopus hotdogs, raw broccoli florets, Ranch dressing for dipping.

Fried potatoes, octopus hotdogs, tomato and romaine salad, mango cubes.

Random bowl of macaroni.

Bentoing Adventures Part 1

After two months of night-class caramel macchiatos and premade roast beef sandwiches, the $225 in my school account to dwindle down to a measly $2. I take this opportunity to be more frugal with my money and start making myself a boxed lunch to take to class instead of spending $7 at Valentino's. Here's how that's going...

This is my first bento that I made for lunch when I went to the computer lab on Sunday to work on a project. It contains rice with salmon furikake, stir-fried okra, and scrambled eggs.

My second bento was for my 6-hour Laboratory class for which we have one hour for lunch break. I used extra cucumber and avocado I cut for making sushi the night before, as well as the leftover vinegared rice. I put a little sweetfish roe in a silicone cup and some soy sauce in a lidded container and mixed it all together during lunchtime. Ta-da~ chirashi-zushi! (if you don't know what chirashi-zushi is...look it up).

My most recent bento I made last night with the intention of bringing it to my 9-12 morning class as an early lunch...but in the morning rush I forgot to grab it. So I had it for lunch when I got back instead. I hardboiled a bunch of eggs yesterday, so this bento has a peeled and quartered hard-boiled egg, rice with salmon furikake, and leftover scallion pancakes that E made a few nights ago.

I didn't perfectly follow the official bento-making guidelines, but hey...I did what I could in the 10 minutes I have each morning. With the exception of the first bento, all the contents of the bento were made from stuff I found in the fridge. I should do this more often.